Apparatuses for strapping packaged items in stacked form, as is customary for a plurality of newspapers, magazines or the like stacked one on top of another, are known in a variety of forms. To allow the stacked packaged item to be held together securely, strapping with intersecting strapping bands, in particular, is customary. European patent specification No. 0 545 105 B1, for example, discloses an apparatus for strapping a packaged item by means of two bands, in which a band guide channel is provided perpendicular to the conveying direction of the packaged item, and another band guide channel is provided crossing diagonally over the latter. Both for a band running transversely around the packaged item and for a band running longitudinally around the packaged item, a binding device is in each case provided which inserts the band into the band guide and then tightens, connects and severs the band.
The binding devices are arranged essentially under the packaged item, parts of the binding device for the longitudinal band being designed to be pivotable. The two binding devices are spaced apart from one another.
The cross-strapping apparatuses described above are sufficient for a large number of sizes of packaged items. However, for particular applications, e.g. for smaller sizes of packaged items, it is more or less impossible, or possible only with comparatively great expenditures in terms of technology and of time, to provide these formats with cross-strapping.